Monday, September 10, 2012

NWG 2012 - Game 2

After a short recess from game 1 I found out that my round 3 opponent
(remember I missed the first round) was Sean O'Regan, a player I had
played in the first round the previous year. He was using his Nids again
and was happy to know I didn't have loads of Purifiers this time. His
list was a lot different than last time, with a load more hoards and a
lot less multi-wound models. His list can be found below. There may be
one of two upgrades I am forgetting.

The way this scenario worked is that each side picked a terrain
piece at least 3x3" in size in their deployment zone to be their
objective. So it was basically the Emperor's Will with two terrain
pieces acting as the objectives. We used Spearhead deployment for this
game as well. I won the roll off and chose to go first, picking a very
large building as my objective, while he got a much smaller rock
formation. For Warlord traits I once again got the ability to reduce his
reserve rolls by one, effectively cancelling off his Hive Commander
ability. He got Night Fighter, and of course chose to make it Night
Fighting for turn one. I got Attrition as my secondary objective, which
meant that I had to kill more of his units than he did of mine. As it
turned out at the end of the game, just like Alan, Sean got Trophy Kill
as his. I got 2 units for my Grand Strategy and so made both my
Dreadknights scoring.

Deployment can be seen below. I kept the Ravens only in reserve,
while he had his three Spore units and the Trygon. His Genestealers
infiltrated, though had limited options due to my deployment.

Turn 1

Turn one the Knights and the Paladins all moved out, with a Rhino
following up the rear. The Strike combat squad in the central building
moved over to spread out and get more guys in range. In shooting that
unit killed two Gargoyles while the Dreadknight on the right flamed 7
Genestealers, though the remainder held their ground.

Starting the Tyranid turn the Tervigon spawned up 9 Termagaunts and
cast Onslaught on them. Between their spawning distance, their move,
and their run, they managed an 18" move that turn, right in Draigo's
face to try block him off for a turn. The Hive Tyrant swung wide east
while the rest of the army advanced in unison near the centre.
Everything in the army that could shoot did, but failed to do any
damage.

Turn 2

Starting he turn I cast a bunchof Psychic powers; 3 Warp Quakes and
a Psychic Communion. Coteaz perils'ed on Prescience. Both Ravens
entered play, with one going after the Flyrant and the other into the
main hoard. Dreadknight 1 moved to kill the remaining Genestealers while
the other moved up close to the hoard.

The onslaught of Grey Knight shooting proved very effective this
turn. Storm Raven 2 managed to do 3 wounds to the Flyrant with the last
dealt when it fell out of the sky. Dreadknight 1 flamed the Stealers but
one survived and held. The other Dreadknight killed 10 Gaunts and 3
Gargoyles with his Incinerator. Draigo and the Paladins managed 4 wounds
on the Tervigon, while the combat squad finished it off. Coteaz's squad
killed off the spawned Gaunts, and Storm Raven 1 splits fire, killing 4
Gargoyles and 2 Hive Guard, doing a wound on the last. Dreadknight 1
tried assaulting the last Stealer but failed.

Only the Zoanthropes landed from reserves and just narrowly outside
of Warp Quake range. The Gargoyles advanced while the Warriors
retreated. The Warriors and Zoanthropes combined fire to killed a
Dreadknight while the Biovores wounded the other. The lone Hive Guard
took a pot shot at the Stormraven, causing locked velocity. The
Gargoyles all shot at Draigo to no effect.

Turn 3

The Stormraven with locked velocity moved with the Dreadknight on
the Zoanthropes, while the other Raven moved on the Warriors. Coteaz
perils'ed again on Prescience. Draigo and co' moved forward for an
assault while one of the Rhinos moved along the back field. One Striker
in the middle building died to perils while both other units got up Warp
Quake.

The Stormravens proved effective again, wiping out a Zoanthrope and
two Warriors between them, as well as wounding another of each. The
Dreadknights finished the Zoanthrope while also wounding the Spore
behind it. The Rhino snap fired at the Stealer but missed and the
Strikes wiped out the smaller Gargoyle squad. Coteaz and co' then
charged the remaining squad as a means for additional movement (assault
and consolidate was going to be better than just running). They easily
wiped them out and advanced.

The Tervigon and one more Spore landed in the Nid DZ, with both
units running. The Warriors continued to retreat. Some lucky shooting
from the central Spore put a wound on the Dreadknight, but all other
shooting was ineffective.

Turn 4

Raven 1 moved far out on the flank so it could at least shoot its
Assault Cannon, while Raven 2 dropped to Hover mode. Warp Quakes went up
again, and Coteaz finally got off Prescience on Draigo's unit before
they advanced on the Tervigon. The Dreadknight moved on the Spore.
Shooting saw off two more Warriors and assault saw both the Spore and
the Tervigon cut down.

The last of the reserves arrived as the already present unit of
Gaunts prepared to charge Draigo in order to hold him up. The Hive Guard
and Warriors retreated once more while the newly arrived Gaunts ran.
Shooting did nothing, but in assault 1 wound was done each to Draigo and
a Paladin, though it cost the Nids 15 Gaunts to do so. The rest were in
Synapse range so held.

Turn 5

The Rhino on the backfield moved in a bit closer while the
Dreadknight moved on the objective. The Ravens manuvered, the damaged
one staying in zoom mode. In shooting the last of the Hive Guard and
Genestealers were finally killed along with the remaining Spores. Draigo
and his unit killed the last of the Gaunts and prepared for the second
wave while the Dreadknight stomped through the Biovores.

The last of the Gaunts charged the Paladins but this time were
wiped out. Sean conceded at that, as if the game ended I won, and if it
went on I would killed his last two models and still win. This is how
the table looked at the end of the game.

Conclusions

Not much to say this time; it was Grey Knights versus Tyranids. He
did a good job delaying Draigo but couldn't stop the Dreadknight. He
also let the fear of Warp Quake dictate his drops too much, as the
North-Western corner was safe for deployment. In the end I had both
primary and secondary once again with a massive points difference in my
favour; another 20-0 victory. This now had me in 4th place despite only
playing 2 games, however things were about to get hard, as I found out
for Sunday morning I was paired against the Green Tide of Jan Karnowski,
regularly tournament winner in Ireland, and ETC vet. And I had no Purifiers this year. Ouch. But it was bar time, not a time to worry about the morning.